Drives in works – Capital campaigns pick up

WINST0N-SALEM, N.C. — Capital campaigns totaling more than $100 million are underway or in the works in Winston-Salem.

“The level of activity over the last two years has picked up dramatically,” says Scott Wierman, president of the Winston-Salem Foundation. “We’ve also found that the size of the campaigns has increased dramatically.”

When the committee was formed, he says, a handful of big companies in the region could carry major campaigns. Now, however, nonprofits can’t tie their hopes to only a few companies, he says.

And as the economy shrinks, he says, the committee plays an even more critical role in helping nonprofits sharpen their plans, keeping campaigns from colliding and alerting funders to campaign plans.

The committee, which meets every three months to review campaigns of at least $500,000, scheduled three campaigns for 2001 totaling $11 million.

Of those, a $5 million campaign by the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools to support technology needs has raised $6.5 million, a total expected to grow to $8 million, said Superintendent Donald L. Martin Jr.

The proposed Children’s Museum of Winston-Salem has raised nearly $3 million in its $4 million campaign, said Susan Elster, board chair.